Regulations to promote home-based elderly care service in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, took effect on Jan 1.

Zhoushan had in 2019 started formulating regulations suitable for home-based service in a city made up of islands.

More measures will be published this year to further facilitate home-based elderly care service in the city, according to an official from the Zhoushan civil affairs bureau.

In terms of supporting facilities for home-based elderly care, new residential communities are required to allocate buildings exclusively for home-based elderly care. The floor area of these buildings should be no less than 2 percent of the community's total.

This year, elderly residents with disabilities or dementia from families receiving minimum living allowance and people aged above 80 who live alone will receive free services from home-based care workers once a month. Free emergency call facilities will be offered to people aged above 80.

In addition, more elderly care service professionals in the city will receive more subsidies from local government starting this year.

The city's proportion of residents aged 60 and above has continued to rise in recent years, said an official.

Statistics from the latest national population census show that Zhoushan is home to 288,100 residents aged 60 and above, accounting for 24.88 percent of the total permanent resident population.